the reduced income for the average consumer in 2013. but what else? gerri: okay, hang on. what is that though the traders want to see? you talk about consumers and how they will be teaed. but how will traders in life it's quick what will make them approve the plan? >> will traders are looking for is a balanced approach, if there is such a thing. and the question is where is the breaking point happened when we talk about dividends. we talk about capital gains. that is where a lot of my colleagues and traders that i talk to are focusing their energy. a lot of folks and their four o. one kays, our money is in stock market. he starts acting all othat, even if it's a retirement account, the psychological effects. gerri: it's not just psychological, it's dollars and

gerri cents. investment income gets hammered with obamacare, that is across eric: g with the fallout of shoppers not showing the board are people who make their living in the investment up this holiday season, dc community. it wilbe very tough. everyone will be looking for better advice, but at the end of the day, you might think twice about the stock market. we have already been through that not too long ago. talking further here, looking starbucks store is urging lawmakers to come together into your crystal ball, waiting some people are predicting a great year. do you believe that? tomorrow and friday. >> we are four years into a full they will come back to work in a market here. mighty more to to the point. we are up 14%. the senate is back tomorrow morning. the s&p is up this year. treasury secretary tim geithner by the way, decades have about is one congressional leaders two pullbacks or sharp corrections in them. about december 31. that's next monday, my friends, fi to 10% minimum. five short days from now. we have michael burgess of texas with us. a lot of volatility in. gei: can't you be a little bit bullishness? are nice. i want to read you what the [laughter] treasury secretary wrote to harry reid.

he said i'm writing inform you that the statutory debt limit will be reached on >> so traditional choices in that category. december 31. he wenon to say that they have any other ideas? special gimmicks they are going >> there are a couple ideas. to deploy to allow us to go past december 31. we have to tell you that here we just thinking about what you do are again. in your everyday life. nothing is being done. cash is tight, you're not going we have no resolution of the to go out and buy a steak. fiscal cliff h and we are about to hit our heads on the debt ceiling. you will substitutwith some what you have to say? >> first off, let's remember chicken. that the debt limit is no chicken is about $1.33. surprise. ground beef $3.33. the surprise is that he that is not even a state. shouldn't be surprised. it's his job to keep track of there are companies that you this. and everybody knew that we are still want to take a look at. going to run out of money in december. apparently except for him. looking to be on the good side. one ofthe big secrets during the presidential election, there were a lot of things that the administration kept from the american people. which means chicken will be in demand and it is also a cheaper one of the big secrets was that alternative. i like sanderson farms as one. we would hit this debt limit in december. because of the way they have gerri: sanderson farms is one. been spending money for that past year. they have $150 trillion in you have anything else in your give back their? january, remember? we all talked about that. >> i don't know if you want to eat this, but alliance tech they have blown through in less than a year.

that is problem number one, the systems, they are actually ammunition maker. spending. gerri: it is absolutely a problem. there is no doubt about that. i've been reading about the i tell you that the general horrible connecticut shooting in public is blaming republicans. this new push for thomas. folks going out and buying guns en masse. but i think the taxes will come 61% say it is the fault of your party, the republicans, your on the ammunition. i think that is where they will party, but we are about to go over this fiscal cliff. attack. they will have a great couple of what do you say? >> of course they blame quarters and they are grabbing republicans. up as much ammunition as that is what people in washington bureau. possible. but they are a great one. let's be realistic about this. gerri: if i had to base my the president owns the economy at the end of the day, whether he wants to admit it or not. investment choices based on congress -- i don't know, but this is his job. thank you for the commentary. have a great new year. i was there in 2003 in the >> thank you, gerri. second round of so-called bush tax policies came to the house. gerri: we will be right back the house house wanted with my "two cents more" and $550 billion in cuts. my "two cents more" and my answers the question of the day. how much did you spend this christmas season? all they could get was stay with us. $250 billion. it was a compromise. george bush came down and met [ male announcer ] at scottrade, with our conference and said, you guys thought the good fight,

this is what i mean, need, let's go and take what we can get, with a $250 billion and the you won't just find us online, problem is solved. gerri: i don't see that exactly. u'll also find us in person, [talking over each other] with dedicated support teams [talking over each other] at over 500 branches nationwide. >> can you imagine? can you imagine lyndon johnson so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. sitting on the sidelines while something like this was going because personal service starts with a real person. on? gerri: i cannot imagine lyndon [ rodger ] at scottrade, johnson going anywhere but seven dollar trades are just the start. washington and sitting there, our support teams are nearby, quite frankly. ready to help. something that is new out this afternoon, senior administration it's no wonder so many investors are saying... officials in hawaii, saying that it up the gop. [ all ] i'm with scottrade. that gop leaders should not stand in way of coming to resolution of the fiscal debt crisis. what do you say to that? let me tell you, a lot of finger-pointing is continuing, and i'm not seeing any resolution. i don't think anyone else's either. >> speaker boehner had planned be on the floor last week. then he pulled it. he had 200 votes probably.

had steny come to him and said we have democrats that would vote with you, the problem would have been over. do you think lyndon johnson would've been on the phone, had you realize that 49 million americans struggle with hunger? that's one out of every 6 americans. it been in the ring last week? these people are around us every day. of course he went. ronald reagan would've done the same thing. they're our friends, they're our coworkers, their kids go to school with our kids. he recalled his spokesman said, look, needed to be with me on sometime we're not even aware that they're struggling. this. we will get some other stuff done later. this problem is closer than you think, but so is the solution. the problem is the president will not engage. he wants it to happen. but he doesn't have his fingerprints on it because he knows whatever occurs is announcer: play a role in ending hunger. visit feedingamerica.org/hunger and find your local food bank. ultimately going to be unsatisfactory from other perspectives. but remember this, the fiscal cliff is a made-for-tv drama. the debt limit is real. gerri: yes, it is real. tomorrow the gop members will have a conference call about what to do next. what do you think you can accomplish? speaker boehner is probably stuck in ohio because the weather is so bad. a lot of yourself, who may not be able to get back to washington. >> that's right, i have a 6:00 o'clock flight booked every

for the next several days, and it's just a matter what happens with this storm that came through here on christmas day. what it is doing in washington dc tomorrow. gerri: what you think will be accomplished in a conference call tomorrow? >> honestly, i do not know. this was a surprise that we got. but we knew we were going to be given 48 hours notice to come back to the capital. so i suspect that's a conference call is. gerri: you guys should stay until the problem is solved. there's nothing wrong with working weekends, my friend. it's always great to have you on the show. you are always so patient with my questions. thank you so much, congressman. it's great to have you on. >> thank you, gerri. gerri: president obama is in washington negotiating a deal to revert the fiscal cliff. the first time and there are 500 billion in tax hikes coming your way. december 31. grover norquist from the president of americans for tax

reform are warning that that is only the start of our problem. >> in addition to the bush tax cuts, 500 billion-dollar tax increases, a trillion dollars in gerri: did you spend more, less obamacare taxes, all the taxes or about the same this holiday to pay for that free health care season? we are supposed to get. here is how you voted on gerriwillis.com. most of you said less. 90% of the tax increases to pay i did too. for obamacare were convenient last week we told you about the top five gifts not give men or postponed until after obama got himself safely reelected. women as christmas including they begin to hit january 1 of this coming year. clothes and ways to monitor your weight, but it ended up being the recipient of one of those they are unpleasant. gerri: absolutely unpleasant. gifts, you may be in luck because it is time to return it is a disincentive to invest them. od news for best buy extending into work. i don't know what people are their deadline for returning going to do down the road. now it seems that people are saying it's up to the senate. it in the senate ballpark now to do something and to get some kind of bill. will they do anything at all? >> all the focus has been on president obama and the house of representatives. the leader, speaker boehner.

some of us went to public school, but i still learned that there is a senate involved in all of this. [laughter] for the last three years no one has been talking by the united states senate. gerri: it's like they're under some witness protection program. they don't do a budget. they don't write a budget, they don't vote on the budget. the republins took them into putting obama's budget out and then they voted against it. they haven't put together a budget because they cannot reelect the democrat majority of the senate in 2024. if everyone of those senators had actually stake out a position as being in favor of obama and his taxes and spending. gerri: i don't understand why people aren't marching on the hill. i really don't. this is what we hired them for, to iron out these differences, and no one is doing the job. let's take a look at the numbers for folks that are married.

if you make $50,000 per year, you'll pay an additional $2000 in taxes. if you pay $100,000, an additional $446 in taxes. the list goes on. you make it to make a million dollars, an additional $50,000 in taxes. this will cause people to reinve the way th lived day-to-day. i don't see why people are upset abt this. they should be. but all of the tax cut that you just mentioned, it is due to the disappearance of the bush tax cuts. the democrats all voted against the bush tax cuts. so they voted to keep those tax increases, not next year, but for the previous 12 years. so you have a very big fight in washington.

the democrats have opposed the bush tax cuts, call them names, said they were for rich people, now that they are about to disappear, they are running for the hills. because they know that that was the tax cut that largely been a beneficial thing. gerri: they are saying that we can't process two thirds of the tax returns with this going on. people who are experts in payroll are saying that we cannot figure out how to handle payroll if you're not going to give us some kind of idea of what you're going to do. the problems are big. it is a myriad of problems. can we go over the fiscal cliff and not causing a recession? >> well, i think some people believe -- and i would argue that i think it is likely, president obama want the school to the fiscal cliff. gerri: i did hr you say that. why would you say that? >> because the next four years will be amess.

a trillion dollars on higher taxes for obamacare, continued overspending because the president has refused to do any restraint spending, no entitlement reform, no trimming of spending. and the regulatory regime. the regulations that the obama people spent four years wriing. they have decided not to share them with us before the president got reelected. once his job was secure, he no longer had to care or pretend to care about your job. so now you have hundreds of billions of dollars of new regulations. maybe even more expensive than spending. gerri: i have to ask you this question. people talk to me about this all the me in new york city. they say higher taxes are grover norquist fault. he has not come to the table or been willing to negotiate. he is the person who forced members of the house of

representatives to say no more taxes. what do you say? >> first of all, as you know, from congress to the senate and people in his or her state -- this pledge is protecting american people through tax increases. we haven't had a republican republican vote for a tax increase in 22 years. that has really slowed down the growth of government from what it would've been otherwise. no obama comes in and wants to spend more and raise taxes. republicans are saying no. we would have a problem if obama hadn't increased the budget by a trillion dollars more a year. gerri: let's face it, whether you're talking about stimulus spending, obamacare, that's3 going to go through the roof, the things that you're going to pay for all this with higher taxes is lunacy, to say the least. on that note, we're going to

have to leave it there. thank you for coming, grover. we hope to see you in the new year. christmas sales were weaker than expected. so now retailers have to give shoppers deeper discounts. in a new proposal to help stggli homeowners. don't worry, the government will take care of you. we will explain coming up next

gerri: retailers are experiencing their worst holiday performance since the 2008 financial crisis. but is it too late to count retailers out? could post holiday discounts

have retailers and shoppers spurting? let's ask founder america's research group, president and chief economist. whathappened with retail sales? we were expecting a 3% gain year-to-year, not falling off a cliff. what happened? >> well, i predicted sales would be up about 1.8%. number 150% of consumers, they are only going to shop and buy when there are big bargains. they were going to shop on black friday, wait three days bore christmas, and finally, 74% of consumers will avoid credit cards as much as possible. in doing that, they had to live on their check. gerri: at 1.8%, that is a little bit betterhan what went wrong. >> keep in mind that is store

sales numbers. when the consumers did not do credit cards this year,, keep in mind only 75% went christmas shopping for 25% wanted to see 75% off. buthey didn't get it. because of that, they didn't spend a dollar. gerri: certainly not everyone did it. jason, consumer confidence is at a five-month low. it's pretty dramatic. yet the commerce department said that consumer spending has been up. what gives? what is the real story among consumers? >> i think the real story here is that continued trend of mode improvement that you are seeing more job creation, although very mild. a very modest. you e seeing spending increasing. over time, moving higher, i think a lot of what we are seeing in the data now is the third quarter for this year is very strong.

if you look at the contribution to gdp is the tird qrter, it was 0.9%. last third quarter for 2011 was 0.3%. we had a reay strong third quarter. the fourth quarter was really strong, 1.3% of the contribution. this is going to be a little bit weaker. just look at the third-quarter as being a lot smarter. gerri: i wish we didn't have to make those trade-offs. why can't we just get better and better? >> you know, we are getting better, but it's very slow. >> it's low enough that you can tell. that's true. >> if you want to feel better about it, you have to lower your expectations little. gerri: i don't like that game at all. let me ask you about what's coming. what is at your after crystal ball for the entity or? last week in december can't be 15% of holiday sales. what is in your crystal ball for them? >> was going to happen is you

don't see retailers giving consumers the discounts anyway. >> hear all over the place that there has been huge discounted. that is part of the problem for retailers, but they won't be able to maintain margins. >> that is the problem. retailers are concerned about wall street and main street. people like macy's is advertising 40% off. the consumers aren't seeing those big discounts that they saw a few years ago. more importantly, thother challenge is consumers have simply, when they shopped at stores come they haven't seen something nice. forty-one% of consumers bought something that they liked for themselves. that's a big difference between whether you had a big christmas season and a weak christmas season.

>> well, i think consumers remain widely price-sensitive. the margins remain tight. but i think some people remain quite concerned about what mr. holds. it looks like we are either going to have another year of modest growth, or potentially we could be in recession. that is not a great thing to look at as you are going into the end of the year. you know, people are holding back a little bit for that exact reason. >> an interesting analysis from both of you tonight. thank you both for coming on. fascinating conversation. a target inside the consumers mind. you don't know what they're thinking. now, we want to know what you think. there is a question tonight. compared to last her, year, how much did you spend this holiday season? more or less? about the same? log onto gerriwillis.com and vote on the right-hand side of the screen. i will share the results later. coming up, the federal government wants to expand a massive program for helping

homeowners. we will have the details. deadly winteweher hits the northeast. post-christmas travel is thrown into chaos. stay with us. want to know what i did in the last five hours? i played a round of golf. then i read a book while teaching myself how to play guitar; ran ten miles while knitting myself a sweater; jumped out of a plane. finally, i became a ping pong master while recording my debut album. how you ask? with 5-hour energy. i get hours of energy now -- no crash later. wait to see the next five hours.

gerri: good news for housing. prices increase. and here's the breakdown. the index of property values in 20 cities, increased 4.3% from october of last year to this

year. that is the biggest games in 2010. i know some of you are thinking that these gains are games are coming in the wake of hugh's huge price drops. that's true. the housing market is recovering. bargain-basement lows, prices still are not low, but it looks like a lot of consumers are taking advantage of the perfect storm. so tt makes it all more curious of the obama administration is calling for an expansion of the federal government's involvement in the housing market.

unbelievable. what the administration is proposing is a bailout. a bailout for homeowners who are underwater. that is that they owe more than the house is worth. even if it's not that by fannie mae and freddie mac. i believe this is a recipe for disaster the government would be doubling down with cheap housing financing. on the backs of taxpers. the government's record of fixing the housing market is a

recipe for disaster. what is the my mom told me? time is a great healer. in the case of housing, that is doubly true. coming up next, it measuring how much our banks are doing. coming up next copd makes it hard to breathe, but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair i clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day.

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feedback from our fox business studios, here again is gerri willis. gerri: hammering the northeast, you can see the winter storm that is supposed to dump a foot of snow or more. parts of ohio and indiana are expecting the snow as well.

this ne's system has been blamed for six deaths so far in. tens of thousandsf people also without power. it also disrupted holiday travel. they are expected to be coming back tomorrow. the big news story that is not getting a lot of attenti that it suld. a shocking new government report shedding light on the biggest bankand how they are being run. within 2.5 years after the passage of dodd-frank, another financial crisis, if it happens right now, we might need another taxpayer bailout. welcome back to the show. >> one of the big regulators, the office of the comptroller of

the concert on concurrency, decided we weren't getting things right. so we are going to start looking into more broadway with the banks do and we look at the 19 biggest banks. in five different categories from that virtually all filled up. >> that doesn't make mefeel any better. what banks are we talking about? i think we havesome of the biggest banks out there. is it the usual list of suspects like you're seeing right here? >> they did not name names. that wasn't even a report was made public. this is something that my colleague had gone through sources. what it showed is that all of the 19 largest banks, it would include the 19 banks are referring to. >> unbelievable. at the end of the day, they are no better off. this brings into doctoring. why isn't doctoring making things better?

>> dodd-frank is in e implementation stage. i think part of this is the question whether can we micromanage? is this the right approach? 840 pages, 10,000 pages of regulation already read is this making the system safer? does our tax code give us a fair tax system? the question is whether the crystal ball that this officer of the comptroller of the currency is using. in his holding cell in china. gerri: regulators didn't see the last crisis. the kelihood is not high. but what more regulators would look at? >> fairly narrow things like the liquidity risk, interest rate risk, different things happening in the financial markets. now, what they are trying to do is look more broadly.

for example, what sort of risk management systems these banks have in place? are they planning for the next ceo? are they communicating to the employees what sort of risks they want to undertake? gerri: didn't we see that with jpmoan chase? they made the big a big bet and lost a ton of dough? >> exactly. you can consider regulators are trying to take a more holistic approa -- pardon me for using outward. gerri: if they only knew how. they are so far away from what really goes on in these prints. it's hard for them to even understand businesses. how likely do you think it is that we will have another bailout? >> i think that obviouslwhen we have the next crisis, certainly the question will be when interest rates go up what will happen? it also raises the question to your point, is this the right approach or should the banks be broken up? the question, of course, if you have a good markets? the idea that we don't have

monopolies, or do we have faith in regulators? even good-faith regulators don't have crystal balls in a shirt on. gerri: and you coming for coming on, we really enjoy what you have to say. this is the report that should get more attention. thank you so much for bringing it to us. >> my pleasure be one earlr i told you about mortgages for the using market. home prices up again compared to last year. for some people, it has been a really great year. tonight's top five. the most expensive homes sold in america this year. comi in at number five, david geffen brought this extravagant spread for a whopping $64 million. breaking the record for the most expensive co-op ever sold in new york. and number four, steve wynn. he bought this luxurious condo. also in new york city. $70 million. the apartment which was once the hotel's ballroom has 14 rooms

and over 10,000 square feet of space. whic is massive for new york. number three, we are still in new york were a russian billionaire bought a penthouse on central park west for $89. he reportedly bought it for his college age daughter to use when she's in town. i hope she's countable there. number two, this lavish new york city duplex penthouse with jetliner views of central park. the 11,000 square-foot penthouse was originally listed for $110 million. but the buyer is anonymous. i can tell you it is. the most expensive home by 2012, look at this. it is in montana. the billionaire owner of the st. louis rams bought this range. the final sale price not yet revealed. but if he paid nearly 1.5 million asking price, it would have been by far the biggest residential real estate sale in the u.s. this year.

i could use a ranch house. that would be nice. coming up, forget the fiscal cliff. a slew of new taxes coming your way in less than week. something congress and the president talked about years ago. i will break it down ask.

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gerri: it will be a new year pretty soon. we will get new taxes. not just for wealthy americans either. millions of americans will face obamacare tax hikes in 2013. especially the middle class. it will likely affect the way you receive care in the way you buy health care. care to explain is doctor mitchell brooks. doctor, welcome back to the show. it's always good to have you here. you say that it's really a three card monte. that is what the american public is getting the obamacare. what do you mean? >> there are so many hidden costs in the health care lot. we are not given the full

information. your playing where the odds are stacked. you don't even know where the cards are. there is a new tax is going in the basically states that threshold will be allowable for medical deductions from income will grow from 7.5000 of the $10,000. for people who people who don't itemize them, they might say that's okay. rich people are going to get -- they're not going to have issues and we are not. well, that's not true. if you have a combined household incomef $80,000 permit fee of $8000 in medical expenses. welcome to the new law will not allow you to deduct $20 that you previously were allowed to deduct. if you're in the 25% tax bracket, it will cost you

$500,000. gerri: that kind of deduction is used by people who are in deep financial debt with medical expenses. these are people who really need help. somehow ey are going to have ss hell. let's talk about this or tax on investment income. using the same issue applies there. it's not just the althy people who will get you with us. what do you mean? >> well, if you have an ira or 401k if you take your money out, which you have to do at a certain age, there is an additional 3.8% is going to be tacked on to your taxes. in other words, if you have $10,000 that you want to install, $380 go to pay for health care. you don't have to be rich to $10,000 in the ira. nobody talks about that. it also goes from the transaction he might have in the bank or anything you want gerri: something that people don't realize that it's happening, people love flexible spending accounts. it allows you to set aside pretax dollars to set aside for

a variety of things. obamacare makes it less useful. how so? >> what it does, it reduces what you can that. it goes from $5000 to $25,000. the problem is that we are told that we are supposed to control the cost of health care. but it seems to me that the only reason to do this is to control health care. it takes the control of your health care away from you. if you have a flexible plan, between 30 and 35 million people have such a plan, if you have this plan, you could decide what you would do with $5000, which you could deduct or take out of your income, like you would an ira account. and it rolls over to the next year if you have a health savings account. now the government says he can you can only take $2500 out. gerri: they are also limiting what you can spend on.

>> that's right. gerri: i want each one of the issue issues here. middle-class people, everyone says, oh, this isn't going to hit me. but you say it well. the sales tax on medical devices. using that to become a big problem? >> that could become a major problem. stryker already announced that it will lay off a thousand people in 2013. there are approximately 400,000 people in the medical device industry, that impact 2 million manufacturing jobs. granted, they are a conservative think tank. but if they are off by 50%, they predict that there will be 43,000 jobs lost as a result of this tax. in the middle class and the working class will pay for this tax to increase premiums. gerri: we don't know what's coming, and i think the price

tag on this whole thing is only going to go up and come out of our pockets. thank you for coming on tonight. we greatly appreciate it. gerri: merry christmas and happy new year. >> happy new year to you as well. gerri: thank you. up next, how to make profit out of uncertainty in this economy. we will be right back with the details

gerri: the new year means new taxes for many americans think

gerri: breaking news for you now. former president george h. w. bush is back in the hospital in the intensive care unit in

uston. a spokesman for the former president saying that he was reunited on sunday after persistent fever and doctors are cautiously optimistic about the course of mistreatment. the president was previously in the hospital last month for bronchitis symptoms. but a spokesman said his cop has improved. former president george h. w. bush in intensive care in houston. we will update you with any other details that we get in the hour. meanwhile, i'm a totally different story, the fisca cliff is still a big concern for most investors. as the president and congress try to come up with a last-ditch effort to fix the fiscal cliff for the year. the dow jones is own nearly 25 points today. having fallen more than 1.5% over the past week. with details, we have jerry leiby for zacks investment research. here is a big question. if nothing happens, will there be a big seller? >> well, if nothing happens, yes, 547%.

but i don't think the question is easy. there's going to be a kick the can solution. the question really is what are the details? who gets hurt the most, and what exactly is going to come out of consumers pockets with we estimate 1500 at minimum will be